The #1 Lie Break-Fix VARs Tell Themselves About Managed Services

Those who figure out the secret to selling managed services not only realize healthy double-digit profit margins over a long period, but something equally desirable to many business owners — the ability to spend some time away from the business without worrying about the next “all hands on deck” IT catastrophe. So, why exactly are […]

Dec 11

2013

Another Reason Managed Services Trumps Break-Fix

During a discussion I had with a managed services provider, the MSP shared a story that reminded me of the stark contrast between the break-fix and managed services business models. Here’s the scenario: The MSP’s new customer had been working with a break-fix VAR and one of the customer’s computers became infected by a virus. […]

Oct 28

2013

5 Tips To Invigorate Your Tired Break-Fix Business

In this month’s feature blog at Business Solutions, Chief Editor Mike Monocello offers a sharp contrast in the effect that selling subscription-based services offers compared with selling break-fix services. Following are five highlights from the article that break-fix VARs looking to make the transition to selling managed services can apply right away: 1. If You’re New […]

Why Some Salespeople Can’t Sell Managed Services

While attending the Ingram Cloud Summit earlier this year, I was surprised to hear one of the keynote speakers say that if you’re a break-fix VAR and you want to sell managed services you’re going to have to fire most of your salespeople. Since it was the first time I had heard such a bold […]

2013

Here’s How One VAR Trounces Its Competition

I recently had the privilege of interviewing Joe Amaral, owner of The Amaral Group, an IT products and services provider that earned the #92 spot on the prestigious Ingram Micro SMB 500 list of top-performing partners in 2012. During my conversation with Amaral, he shared something with me that I’ve never heard before: “We’ll sell […]

2013

Are Your Managed Services Customers Pining For The Break-Fix Days?

One of the recurring themes I hear from MSPs is that it’s possible to do such a good job fixing a customer’s network and other IT issues that things just don’t break like they used to. So, where’s the problem, you ask? The problem is that customers don’t like to pay a monthly fee for […]